Transportation

Expanding EcoPass coverage to everyone living and working in Boulder to lower our greenhouse gas emissions and provide more equitable access to our transit system

What can you carry in your wallet that can, at a minimum, quintuple the probability that you will use transit? An EcoPass. The EcoPass program is credited with almost a quarter of downtown commuters’ use of transit. It does a great job of meeting two legs of our sustainability stool, environmental and economic. However, to meet the social sustainability leg, we need to make the EcoPass available to everyone.

As it currently stands, small businesses may find it difficult to justify the cost of providing an EcoPass and, in order to qualify, their employees must be full-time. Neighborhood EcoPass programs are difficult to establish given the requirement of very large sums of money up-front. Consequently, the EcoPass is unavailable to people who, for example, work two part-time jobs or live in neighborhoods that cannot afford to collect funds up-front. With a city-wide EcoPass, everyone, regardless of their employment status or what neighborhood they live in, would have the same opportunity to access our award winning community transit network.

I understand the importance of transit access for everyone, and how it is key to achieving so many of our community’s goals. As a City Council member, I will work hard toward making the city-wide EcoPass a reality.